Adrian Delia, a lawyer and an outsider to the political sphere, has confirmed that he will be contesting the Nationalist Party leadership race in September. Delia is the first contender to have confirmed his interest in the position being vacated by Simon Busuttil in the wake of the party’s defeat at the 3 June polls.

In an interview with this newspaper, Delia advocates getting in touch with the people and that he is in a perfect position, as a non-politician, to do so.

He says: “I think that we need enthusiasm, conviction and energy to get out there and pass on our message to the people one by one. People can sometimes be numbers in a political campaign but we need to look at every member of the entire electorate, at the citizens, irrespective of partisan politics and convince every single one of them that together we can create a better country.”

The PN’s forte over the years, Delia observes, has been in interpreting positively particular junctures in history where the nation needed and wanted to be, and taking decisions of historic importance. The EU referendum was one such case in point.

He adds, “Sadly, over the last years the party has not been judged so by the electorate. I hope to be able to install a realisation that we have an obligation to understand where society is today. We need to listen, we need to understand not only where the party stands, but also understand that society is moving and changing very fast. 

“We need to be able to really and truly get on the ground and speak to the people – not to Nationalist or Labour supporters, but to the Maltese people as a whole. We are all citizens with different aspirations and needs. This is not a question of being populist; it is a question of understanding where society is and restructuring ourselves without renouncing our values.

“We need to understand the people and represent them as best we can, because that is what politicians should be – representatives of the people. And as such we need to interpret what the people want and need.”

On looking back on what led to the PN’s two successive staggering defeats at the polls, Delia believes that one needs to try to understand the failures but at the same time be positive and look forward. 

“Was the PN fighting the right battles? Certainly, corruption and zero tolerance towards it. Of course, there are no two ways about it. 

“But after talking about corruption and zero tolerance, there must be more. I will tell you as a citizen that corruption will be punished, not by us but by due process at law in our courts and we need to ensure that there is such due process at law and that the law will be maintained.

“But we also need to see how the people will actually be living tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. There are many people who do not have the luxury to contemplate certain values or principles. I am not in any way suggesting that financial or economic class or position have anything to do with values, but we need to understand the people who are concerned about the end of the month bills, and they need to also know that this is something that the next government will also be concerned about.

“We need to translate our values while holding firm to them and also specifically address not only economic sectors, but people at home. We need to speak to them in the language they understand.  

“I don’t want to criticise what the party has done in the past too much because I do not think it is my place now, but what I will definitely say is ‘Let’s listen more, let’s be more humble, let’s understand our failings, some of which  in my mind are pretty much clear.

“Let’s go to the people and listen to them, and not ask them to come and listen to us. Maybe that is my advantage in not being a career politician. I am still one of the people and I can understand from the bottom upward how together we can involve the people in the government or in the opposition, whatever side we are on, and move on from there.”

Asked if he is a liberal or whether he leans more toward the conservative side of today’s society, Delia has a unique answer: “We can put tags on anything you want. We can talk of leftist and rightist, and of the centre. That may be the language of sociologists and politicians but in my mind when I say centre I mean the centre of families, when I think of right, I think of doing things in the right manner rather than in a rightist manner.

“I think people are not too concerned about isms, people are concerned about how politics can positively affect their lives. That is, after all, exactly what politics is all about.

“For us regular people, what we want to know is that we live in a normal country, in a democratic country, in a country that can flourish economically not because the government gives us anything except opportunity and education. If we have those, together we can improve our lot with our government directing us by creating opportunities that we will then take up. That is because the Maltese people are an intelligent and hardworking people and with no resources at all they have done well for themselves.

“We need to start thinking that we can really start using politics as a tool to improve everybody’s lot because politics is not a weapon of war but a tool of prosperity, success and for living better lives together.

“I am really keen about convincing more people to sign on to this kind of thinking.”

As a rank outsider, how does Delia see his chances once party members get down to voting on their next leader?

“For me this has been a personal decision. I did not strategise too much on the leadership election and as soon as I was at peace with my family and myself, I took my decision. What I can say is that the more people who are actually interested in the contest, the more it shows that the PN is alive and kicking.

“Despite this second landslide defeat, the party is far from dead. I think it is buzzing. It is awake, alert and really looking forward to a new leadership. It is just waiting and once this happens, it will happen in the right way by involving more people to do things the right way. I can already feel this spark of enthusiasm.

“I am a firm believer in the politics of finding the best legislative solutions for improving the lot of our country rather than wasting most of our energy on a tribal approach to politics.

“I could be accused of political naivety, but I want to bring to politics the optimistic and positive way that I have lived my life to date. I have lived my life with a belief in my country and myself. I think that for me it has been a key to success – waking up every day to a challenge, the bigger the challenge ahead the better I perform and the better the result.

“This has served me well all my life and I hope that I can translate that into politics.”